金剛般若經贊述 2.113

2.113

This refers to the doubt: 'If there are no bodhisattvas, no person becomes a Buddha, and the Buddha should also be nonexistent.' To demolish this doubt, it is stated that the dharma-Buddha exists. Because of the false graspings of sentient beings, they take the five aggregates as a body. The wise understand that it quickly rots and is quickly destroyed, having no reality whatsoever; only the true principle exists, permanent and true. Because it is tathatā, it is permanent and unchanging; because it is true, it is free from falsity and is not inverted. Water and fire cannot harm this true principle, nor can wind or thieves destroy it; whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha, its nature is ever so; whether spoken of or not spoken of, its meaning does not alter. Yet ordinary beings, because of false inversions, grasp the body as a body, not contemplating the principle of the body, and sink for a long time [in saṃsāra]. The noble ones have correct knowledge and so do not cling to the body; they only contemplate the true principle. Having been able to accord with and awaken [to it], saṃsāra is forever extinguished, the coverings of delusion are entirely exhausted, and the principle is clearly manifest; therefore, he is called the Tathāgata. By this it is clarified that the Buddha is not nonexistent.